Dinosaur extinction: what they don’t want you to know
Like, the Larsonite hypothesis
During the last days of the Mesozoic, the dinosaurs took to smoking. This unfortunate activity led to a higher incidence of lung cancer and other diseases, and as such ended up wiping out the dinosaurs.
This hypothesis is much simpler than the others presented on this page, and thus more credible. Most research on it these days is carried out at the Midvale School for the Gifted.
It’s estimated that, on average, people have a tip-of-the-tongue moment at least once a week. Perhaps it occurs when you run into an old acquaintance whose name you can’t remember, although you know that it begins with the letter “T.” Or perhaps you struggle to recall the title of a recent movie, even though you can describe the plot in perfect detail. Researchers have located the specific brain areas that are activated during such moments, and even captured images of the mind when we are struggling to find these forgotten words.
This research topic has become surprisingly fruitful. It has allowed scientists to explore many of the most mysterious aspects of the human brain, including the relationship between the conscious and unconscious, the fragmentary nature of memory, and the mechanics of language. Others, meanwhile, are using the frustrating state to learn about the aging process, illuminating the ways in which, over time, the brain becomes less able to access its own storehouse of information.
The new strategy, unveiled yesterday by DWP officials, is to dump hundreds of thousands of plastic balls onto the Ivanhoe Reservoir’s surface (a reservoir adjacent to the Silver Lake Reservoir) to shade its water from sunlight. The reason for this rather unorthodox approach is simple: by blocking the sun, you prevent the reaction between bromide and chlorine, which forms bromate, from occurring.
So now it’s a big wet ball pit
“Is that what you want, Mary? A farter?” Tucker/Norman, “There’s Something About Mary”
To the Royal Academy of Farting, Benjamin Franklin, c. 1781.
That the permitting this Air to escape and mix with the Atmosphere, is usually offensive to the Company, from the fetid Smell that accompanies it.
That all well-bred People therefore, to avoid giving such Offence, forcibly restrain the Efforts of Nature to discharge that Wind.
That so retain’d contrary to Nature, it not only gives frequently great present Pain, but occasions future Diseases, such as habitual Cholics, Ruptures, Tympanies, &c. often destructive of the Constitution, & sometimes of Life itself.
I wonder what the impact would have been on social norms if certain gases weren’t invisible.
Update: Another, erm, voice heard from. Science World toots up on the matter.
A doctor tells a man, “You’re fat. Lose some weight.”
The man says, “I want a second opinion.”
“OK, you’re ugly, too.”
According to the International Journal of Obesity, we’re fat because we’re stuffing our faces, and not so much because we’re sitting on our duffs (Ha! Speak for yourself. I’m a double-threat.)
(from the journal)
Conclusion: As physical activity expenditure has not declined over the same period that obesity rates have increased dramatically, and daily energy expenditure of modern man is in line with energy expenditure in wild mammals, it is unlikely that decreased expenditure has fuelled the obesity epidemic.
So if you’re burning just as many (or more) Calories, gaining weight must be from increased intake. Basic physics.
And as for the International Journal of Obesity? From this angle it looks to be a few extra pages thick, if you take my meaning.
Top-bunked for several years. Never wore a bike helmet, either. The pediatricians at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio are wussies.
Alcohol ‘cuts risk of arthritis’
The risk was up to 50% lower for those who drank the equivalent of five glasses of wine a week compared with those who drank the least, they found.
The results should be taken with a grain of salt (on pretzels or peanuts, preferably) because the researchers were pretty well liquored-up and the data were analyzed between choruses of “Louie, Louie.”
(and the “standard glass of wine” is one more thing I want to see next time I visit NIST)
The 2008 “Classic Science Papers” Challenge is done. Thanks to gg for coming up with the idea, and making the list of all the posts. I’ve still got one installment left to do, on a second paper, which I should be able to finish up shortly.
Bananas are in a bunch of trouble
Panama disease – or Fusarium wilt of banana – is back, and the Cavendish does not appear to be safe from this new strain, which appeared two decades ago in Malaysia, spread slowly at first, but is now moving at a geometrically quicker pace. There is no cure, and nearly every banana scientist says that though Panama disease has yet to hit the banana crops of Latin America, which feed our hemisphere, the question is not if this will happen, but when. Even worse, the malady has the potential to spread to dozens of other banana varieties, including African bananas, the primary source of nutrition for millions of people.
Banana scientist? Can you get an actual degree in “banana science?”